A Tool To Hide The Start Button On Windows 8.1 Taskbar

The Start button on the Windows 8.1 taskbar lets you quickly switch to the Start screen when you perform a left-click on it, and reveals the power user menu when you right-click on it.

It’s no secret that most Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 users use the Windows logo key on the keyboard or Windows logo button on the charms bar, and Windows logo key and X keys to reveal the power user menu. Since both the Start screen and power user menu can be accessed using hotkeys, many Windows 8.1 users might want to hide the Start button and create some additional space on the taskbar.

Even though Microsoft has provided a way to boot directly to the desktop and options to make the hot corners less annoying, there is no option to hide the Start button. In fact, there is no option even in the Registry to hide or disable the Start button on the taskbar.

A couple of weeks ago, we first discussed about a workaround to hide the Start button. The method involves using a third-party Start menu program to replace the original Start button with a custom one and then use StartKiller program to hide the Start button. Since it requires you install a third-party Start menu program, not all users might not like the idea of installing a Start menu software just to hide the Start button.

For those users who are looking for an exclusive tool designed to disable the Start button in Windows 8.1 should check out Metro Remove tool. As the name implies, Metro Remove is designed to disable all modern UI features in Windows 8.1, but you can choose to disable only the Start button without affecting other features.

In order to hide the Start button, download Metro Remove zip file by visiting developer’s page (link provided at end of this article), extract the zip file, open up Executable folder, run MremGUI.exe file, and then click Kill the Start button to hide the Start button.

And if the Start button appears even after clicking on the Kill the Start button option, simply click the Restart Explorer button to restart the Explorer.

And clicking on the Kill the Modern UI button will hide the Start screen, hot corners, and also the charms bar. Clicking the Initialize Keyboard Hook will make Windows 8.1 to show the Start screen only when you press the Windows logo key on the keyboard and not when you click the Start button on the taskbar.

Please note that the current version of Metro Remove tool leaves some blank space in the original place of the Start button. The developer of the tool is working on to fix the issue. We will update this post once the developer fixes this issue. The other catch is that the Start button will be restored when you restart Windows Explorer or when you restart your PC.